Date: April 5, 2008
Rehearsal Dinner: Bistro VG
Ceremony: Cathedral of Christ the King
Reception: Country Club of the South
Coordination: Janice Blackmon, Watermark Weddings
Entertainment: Diane McIntosh
Cake: Gabriel’s Desserts
Videography: Jonathan Nye, Evolution Video Productions

*** CLICK HERE *** to view the slideshow

“Dear Jason, I am so excited to spend our lives together…”

That is how Vicky’s note to Jason begins. And this is how their married life begins:

One of the things that I sometimes find intriguing is the timing of the day. Since all of us capturing images on your wedding day (whether it’s two or three or four of us) all synchronize the times on our cameras I always take the images from all the cameras and edit the images chronologically. The part that I find really amazing is to see what the bride and groom are doing at the same moment. Sometimes you find the bride reading a note from the groom and vice versa at the exact same time. Here’s Vicky and Jason both getting ready to walk out the door and looking in the mirror.

The stunning bride…

Ahhh, the waiting…

Bride on the run image #1. Leaving the church in a stylish Rolls Royce.

This is one of my favorite moments of the day. Don’t think I’m weird. After Mass, the wedding party was invited over to Vicky’s parents’ beautiful home in Country Club of the South. As we were getting ready to depart for the reception, Vicky and Jason stepped into her father’s basement office and took a few moments to practice their dance one last time. Just Vicky, Jason and dad who snapped a few frames with his camera too.

Bride on the run image #2. Going to the reception.

The first dance…

This is where it gets amazing! Vicky’s mother, had alerted me in the weeks leading up to the wedding that if the weather held up then Vicky and Jason and all the guests were going to be surprised with an evening fireworks show. And surprised they were! This show was as good as the Stone Mountain show — just to give you an idea of the scale.

A very special thanks go out to Brian Steele for his trusty assisting/shooting and to Chris Torres of 6 of Four Creations for coming out and getting some amazing shots.

Congratulations Vicky and Jason!

Date: March 15, 2008
Rehearsal Dinner: Piedmont Driving Club
Ceremony: Peachtree Presbyterian Church
Reception: Cherokee Town & Country Club
Coordination: Kourtney Coleman @ K Coleman Weddings & Events
Music: Del Baroni Orchestra
Video: Jonathan Nye @ Evolution Video Productions

*** CLICK HERE **** to see the slideshow.

Wow, what a pleasure!

Having a beautiful bride and groom who are a pleasure to be around on the happiest day of their life is only part of the story. It’s the most important, of course, as a photographer. But behind the scenes making it all happen are all the vendors who help the family and the couple and just let go and enjoy the day. So it’s always great to work with some of the top folks in the industry.

I’ve heard many good things about Kourtney Coleman so it was a pleasure to finally work with her and she did a stellar job! Del Baroni and his full orchestra was fantastic! I have to add this comment: if you are going to hire them, do yourself a favor and go for the full orchestra. It really adds a lot and they are so so versatile in the styles of music they can do. I was really impressed! And Jonathan was a pleasure to work with. As it turns out, we both worked a wedding a couple weeks later too, which I’ll blog in a couple days. And last but not least, Katie Torres, of 6 of Four Creations fame, came and helped me out getting some amazing images while Brian Steele assisted and got some great ceremony images too.

I was chatting on the phone with Stephanie about her wedding images and which ones were her favorites… she mentioned the flower girl and how she looked just like a perfect little doll that they bought at the store for the wedding. Check out this picture of her at the rehearsal dinner. Don’t you agree with Stephanie!

And isn’t Stephanie just the definition of class!

They chose to see each other before the wedding (as you can tell above), and as we arrived at the church, amid the bridal party last minute chatter and chaos that takes place at every wedding, Stephanie stole a quiet moment with her groom to be. You might think this was a “posed” shot but it wasn’t. Just a simple moment that none of us would have remembered…

Stephanie in her chambers as she waits…

Back at the Cherokee Town and Country Club the newlyweds have a moment to share alone before the reception begins.

And then they stole away in a 1941 Cadillac Convertible…

Congratulations!

Date: March 1, 2008
Location: Westin, Buckhead
Coordination: Bari Schlam at the Westin

***CLICK HERE*** to see their slideshow.

I must admit a little bit of trepidation before shooting my first Jewish wedding. Everybody was surprised that I’ve never covered one before. But in the end it’s really not that different. And what I mean by that is not that instead of a priest you have a Rabbi, and instead of “congratulations” you have “mazal tov” — but that in the end you have two beautiful souls coming together before the Lord to betroth themselves, one to another, and inviting their friends along to share in the joy they have found.

On the other hand, I was very much looking forward to this wedding because, as a life-long Catholic, I feel a great affinity toward my Jewish brothers and sisters and have always been interested in the Jewish faith knowing that the roots of my faith lay in Judaism. I was excited!

But I have a wedding to tell you about…meet Erika and Jeremy!

Everything was staged and the bride and groom were poised to see each other for the first time and all my best laid plans were thwarted when the doors were closed right in front of me! Okay, minor panic. But with my telephoto lens, 60 feet into a darkly lit room and a hairline crack in the door I managed to catch a glimpse of the first kiss.

The Ketubah is signed, witnessed and the prayers are read…

Let the ceremony begin…

I just love the look she gives her groom as she approaches. She doesn’t take her eyes off of him the entire time.

Mazal Tov!

I just got wind I was featured on Brides.com Local Scout Atlanta blog today.

Ben

I’ve been friends with this family for a number of years so when Lauren & Matt decided to tie the knot I was delighted they asked me to cover their wedding. It was fun for a number of reasons. Lauren’s parents actually work at Catholic Church of St Andrews so the rules the church places couples under was, shall we say, not an issue. It’s nice when the father and mother of the bride have keys to everywhere you need to go. Second, the Pastor of St Andrew’s used to be our old pastor so we had a great time catching up and talking about camera gear, etc.. I knew more than half of the people in attendance which is always cool, and finally Katie and Chris were on hand to help me out before we caught a plane to Tampa later that evening. Enough of me…

Lauren was radiant and stunning on her day!

I thought I’d present Matt as the stoic here on the blog. He’s a really cool guy and handled everything with ease…

Ahhh Bernie. Can you tell Lauren’s father was a little tensed up as they were getting ready to take that long walk down the isle? I think Lauren had to relax him a little

But he did just fine!

Here’s Msgr. Marren, our old pastor giving the couple a little advice. The whole party loved Msgr. Marren and I overheard one of the bridesmaids telling Lauren how cool he was.

So I was wondering if Bernie was going to make it through the Ave Maria but being the pro that he is, he did just fabulously.

Lauren and Matt caught a brief moment after the ceremony to say hi before the bridal party rushed in and the congratulations started…

This young man was actually in the party for wedding I did back in 2006. It’s obvious he has the stuff it takes to begin a career in photography!

Congratulations to Matt and Lauren!

Ben Vigil

I’m so jazzed that Nikki and Johnny’s wedding in Islamorada (FL Keys) last April was featured in the Spring/Summer issue of The Knot Florida. And not only that, they gave it a 4-page spread! I know that Nikki is super excited about it because she worked so hard on all the details and they meant so much to her. So congratulations Nikki!

If you look at the sidebar to the right at the top, you can see a hint of more news that I’ll be posting soon!

Ben Vigil, The Knot Florida, Islamorada, Florida Keys Destination Wedding Photographer

Chris and Katie Torres and I just landed at TPA for the ImagingUSA for the next few days (they’re waiting for luggage). They shot a wedding with me this afternoon and we caught a flight out of Atlanta this evening. We’re all jazzed to be here with so many other amazing photographers and I can’t wait to show you some images from today’s wedding with Lauren and Matt.

Talk to you soon!

Ben

Stephanie and Chris were in town for the holidays so it was the perfect time to get together and capture a few engagement images. It was great to see them because I hadn’t seen them since they commissioned us early this year to cover their wedding in a few months.

So we headed down to the Swan House, which fits their style to a “T”, and this is what we came away with…

I just love this next image. It’s so many things at once, like they’re lost in another world.

Ben Vigil, on the fifth day of Christmas.

What a lot of people don’t realize is that pressing the shutter is only the first step in the process that makes the image. Many photographers have developed a signature style that incorporates not just the subjects and the moment they captured but also the “way” they process their images in Photoshop: the color pallets they prefer, the effects they employ, the textures they apply to the background, etc.. Indeed, the reality and the final image are often quite far apart. On the other side of the spectrum, even those photographers who get paid hefty sums for their “candid and stirring photojournalistic style” often labor over the post-processing of an image. The difference between the former and the latter is simply a matter of style and sometimes degree.

People sometimes seem to think that we press the shutter and out comes a piece of art. This thought process usually precedes some question about how we can justify charging $xxx for a 4×6 photo or why albums cost so much. Setting aside the artistic element (which in the end is reason enough to charge whatever your work as an artist is valued at), the simple fact of the matter is that the amount of work involved in producing a 4×6 is the same as a 30×40 canvas gallery wrap.

Here’s an example to show you what I’m talking about. This first image is basically straight out of the camera. Natalie and Ben specifically requested this picture and I obliged. As I was getting ready to take this shot I’m thinking no less than 5 things to myself: I want the big branch at the top of the frame so you feel like the couple is wrapped in the environment; I want you to see the church towering upward; I need to underexpose (darken) the shot so I preserve the details of her dress and the trees against the very bright sky; all that splotchy sunlight on the ground is NOT going to make this easy; and last, that I’m going to have to Photoshop-out the wires later. You hire me to shoot your wedding precisely because I’m thinking those 5 things (or any one of a hundred other things) when I pull the camera to my eye.

Here’s the shot. Not that great, huh? I wouldn’t even deliver that as a proof to a client.

But we’re not done. First, the image passes through Lightroom to give me the basic color, exposure and dynamic range I want. That gives me an image that I deliver to the client as a proof if you get the hi-res images on DVD with your package. But when you buy an image from us online or if this image when into your album it gets all the TLC it needs before it goes out the door.

This is what happens in Photoshop to make the image below: it gets recropped to remove the tilt, an edge vignette is added to draw the eye in, there’s a little “midnight sepia” in the foliage, a little cross-process to Natalie and Ben to make them pop, and finally, the electrical wires were removed as well as the stop sign and street signs in the bottom-left of the frame.

Which would you rather put in your album?

Ben